Niles Canyon ghost
The Niles Canyon ghost story is the Northern California variation on the vanishing hitchhiker archetype. There are many different variations of this story depending on whom you ask. All stories include a girl being involved in some sort of motorized vehicle accident on February 26 (year often changed). One variation of the story includes a girl being involved in a car crash on Niles Canyon road (off the 680 freeway in Sunol, California) on the way to her prom. The girl died on impact and to this day is said to haunt Niles Canyon road every February 26. The tale of the haunting goes that people traveling along Niles Canyon road (now Highway 84) on the night of February 26 will see a normal-looking high school-aged girl walking along the road in a prom dress (many people have said it is white). People traveling along the road (mostly those traveling alone) have said to have stopped and offered the girl a ride. She accepts the ride, giving the driver an address across the bridge (either Dumbarton or Bay Bridge depending on the storyteller). Once the driver gets to the beginning of the bridge, the girl will disappear. Sometimes people have gone to the address to find that a girl many years ago matching that description once lived there. Today, many people will travel along this treacherous pitch black road in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the Niles Canyon ghost.
References
- http://tracypress.com/view/full_story/2180762/article-Ghost-girl-of-Niles-Canyon-rests
- http://www.strangeusa.com/Viewlocation.aspx?id=749
- http://www.lovehaight.org/links/secret_sidewalk/white_witch.html